Safe and liner therefor



Nov. l, 1938.

llllllll Il A. M. DE vouRsNl-:Y`

A SAFE AND LINER THEREFOR Filed May 7, 195

ATTORNEYS Patented Nov. 1, 1938 UNITED STTES PATENT OFFICE SAFE' AND LINER. THEREFOR i Andrew M. De Voursney, Milwaukee, Wis.

Application May 7, 1936, Serial No. '78,308v

14 Claims. (Cl. 109-1) This invention relates to an improvement in Figure 2 is a view taken in section in the plane safes and liners therefor. indiCated al? 2-2 in Figure l.

It is the object of theinvention to improve a Figure 3 is a fragmentary detail VieW 0n an safe of the "Corliss type by means discouraging enlarged scale showing the various layers which -5 unauthorized entry, rst by rendering such entry must be penetrated by the burglar t0 gain access 5 more diicult, and secondly by depriving the burto my improved safe.

glar of the fruit of his labor. Like parts are identied by the same reference 'Ihe country contains many thousand safes of characters throughOut the several Views. the Corliss type which are regarded by many per- In the drawing I have shown at 4 the doorand sonsv as absolete for the reason that improvements at 5 the Wall of a conventional safe; In accord- E10 in the technique of thermal cutting has made it ance with this invention I have assembled Within possible for safe burglars to penetrate the Walls the Safe the parts 0f a pre-fabrieated interior with a torch and remove the contents. The doors jacket 0r liner generically designated by referof this type of safe are still regarded as `virtually enee Character 6, Which prOlJeCts all pOrtiOns 0f impregnable either by blowing, drilling, or therthe Wall 5 and is previded With an Opening at l `15 mal cutting. registering with the opening which is closed by 'I'he practice of the safe burglar is as follows; the door 4. With the extremely hot llame of a torch such as In practice the liner is made up in at least is commercially used either for cutting or weld- Ve SeCl10r-like Darts 3, 9, i0, ll and l2, Pi'OVided ing, the thief removes the metal Wall of the safe With registering lugs I5 bolted together by the 20 untu he penetrates the interior. During this belts |6- The use of ve sectors is required in operation the wail 0f the safe has become higmy order to permit each sector to be introduced into heated, and the lack of sufficient oxygen in the the door opening 0f existing Safes. interior is frequently all that keeps the contents Each 0f I@he SeCtOrs 3, 9, l0, and l2 is preferfrom being burned. As soon as the flame peneably WO ply. The inner ply il is made 0f tung- 254 trates the wel] the thief immediately introduces Sten steel, which burns at an extremely high tema quantity of Water to submerge the contents and peiature and requiles a special tip 0n the tOrCh thereby prevent them from burning during his used for Cutting it. Whereas the Safe Wall 5 has subsequent cutting operations to enlarge the helel .heretofore been made of manganese steel (to resist The present invention seeks to improve both drilling) and will now at about 2200 F., the inner 30 existing and future safes of this type by providply 0f the liner, if made 0f tungsten steel, will ing a liner which is made sectionally for installa- I10i flOW until the temperature reaches 0r eXCeeds tion in existing equipment and which.` is not 5300 F. merely made of metal highly resistant to ther- The Outer ply lll, While nel? essential t0 the mal cutting so that intense heat is required for inVeniOn, is preferred because il; may be made 35 its penetration, but in which additionally I pro- 0f a @Opper base burn-resisting metal harinar a Vide an excess 0f oxygen made available when.. heat Conductivity S0 great aS t0 distribute the ever the temperature becomes excessive to assure heat ihlOughOutthe liner and the interior 0f the the destruction of the combustible contents of Safe befofeihe point 0f application 0f the flame the Sam Even though the contents are not can be raised to a temperature sulcient for `40 Wholly destroyed, they will be rendered non-'ne- Cuttmg' Any metal of high heat orlduftlvlty gotiable, and even if they are wholly destroyed in can be used for the ply '8 but as above Indicated the ordinarilyaccepted sense they can still be ftaedlgg are usual where heat cnn lciiiigaxdofraesdtnadetOxpgvegrg The liner may be left entirely loose within the V45 safe wall if desired but I preferto fill the space Thus there 1s no loss either to the bank or the between the hner and the safe wall with a layer Insurer of the bank but the burglar 1S precluded i9 of concrete with which nails have been liberfrom profiting and therefore his incentive is ally interspersed, as indicated in Fig. 3 to resist deslrOyed. drilling. The concrete is not only proof against 50 Other obieets will appear more Speclcauy from attack by a torch, but it also acts to some extent the fOllOWing diSClOSuI'eas a thermal insulator to confine within the safe In the drawing and the interior thereof all the heat developed Figure 1 is a view in axial section of a safe during attempts to penetrate the liner by cutting.

embodying my invention. Obviously, the construction disclosed will great- 55 ly increase the mere mechanical difficulty of penetration. Using a low temperature tip, the burglar will speedily cut with his torch the outer wall 5, but he will then be confronted with a concrete filler in which interspersed nails make drilling difcult, so that his only means of penetrating this layer will involve chipping away the concrete with a chisel or the like. This will be rendered difficult not merely by the nails, but by the fact that the'location of the concrete ller on the inside rather than the outside of the safe wall will require the thief to operate through the relatively small openingwhich he has been able to burn in the exterior wall. Since criminals are notoriously lazy, and are also obliged to work against time, the concrete layer in this location will offer a severe handicap.

When the criminal has penetrated the concrete the tungsten steel will offer a very substantial obstacle requiring the highest temperature for its penetration, and the copper base burn-resisting ply i8, if used, will tend to carry away the heat with such rapidity as to prevent the operator from raising the temperature to the point where he can cut the inner ply I1. The outer ply I8, incidentally, may be held to the inner ply l1, by cap screws 20 threaded into blind holes as shown in Fig. 2.

From the foregoing it will be apparent that the difficulty of access is greatly increased not merely by the materials used and the number of different plies or layers employed, but by the particular order in which such plies or layers are incorporated in my improved safe structure.

Assuming that the would-be burglar succeeds in penetrating the safe and its liner, it is apparent that the interior temperature will be much higher than anything with which the burglar has heretofore been obliged to contend. Not only has he found it necessary to use a temperature of 5300 F. to cut the inner liner ply of tungsten steel, but the outer liner ply of copper base metal has distributed the heat throughout the liner and the interior of the safe, its outward flow being resisted by the concrete ller (or the air space between the liner and the safe wall if no filler is used). In consequence of the extremely high temperature which will exist throughout the interior of the safe, all combustible contents will surely be destroyed or rendered non-negotiable if sufficient oxygen is present.

To assure such destruction or mutilation, I prefer to suspend by means of the carrier 23 from one of the bolts I6, a vessel 24 containing a closure 25 adapted to hold in such vessel a supply of oxygen under pressure. Obviously oxygenating compounds may be used. In this particular embodiment of the invention, however, I use free oxygen gas, and either the container 24 or its closure 25, or both, are made of metal such as lead or white metal which fuses at a low temperature not to exceed a few hundred degrees F. Thus, any effort to cut thermally the liner 6 will result in immediate release within the liner of a sufficient quantity of `slxygen to assure the combustion of negotiable instruments and currency contained in the safe. It is to be noted that this will occur before any opening can be madethrough which water could be introduced and consequently the burglar will find, upon entry, that the securities within the safe are all nonnegotiable.

I also employ, as a means of assuring the destruction of thel contents of the safe, a material which will be ignited by the torch used in peneaieasei trating thesafe and which will be self-oxygenating to burn at an exceedingly high temperature. Such a material is the well known Thermite" which, in powdered form, asat 26, may be suspended in shallow pans 21 of any light sheet metal or other material comprising supplemental liners for the individual lining sectors. Such pans are shown applied to the end wall surfaces and top wall surfaces of sectors 8 and l2 in Figs. 1 and 2.

As above indicated, even badly charred securities and currency can be'identified sufficiently for replacement purposes or redemption by using photographic processes and other technical improvements-such as those including the use of ultra violet light. Even if the contents of the safe were wholly destroyed beyond redemption or replacement, however, the invention would still serve its purpose in depriving the burglar of any profit and thus tending to discourage future effort.

I claim:

1. The combination with a metal safe wall, of a liner comprising two plies disposed within said wall, one of said plies being more thermally resistant than the wall and the other of said plies being highly heat conductive, the latter ply being interposed between the former ply and the wall, whereby to dissipate the heat of a torch and to raise the temperature of a safe containing such wall before such torch can gain access to the thermally resistant ply.

2. In a safe, the combination with a metallic Wall, of a linersubstantially co-extensive with the wall and comprising a metal more .thermally resistant than the wall, and a cemetitious ller between the liner and the wall, said ller being substantially mpregnable to attack by heat and yieldable only to mechanical assault whereby to limit the area of access to the thermally resistant ply. V

3. In a safe, the combination with a wall, of a liner substantially co-extensive with the wall and comprising an inner ply more heat resistant than the wall, an intermediate ply having a higher heat conductivity than the inner ply of the wall, and a non-metallic incombustible iiller between said intermediate ply and the wall.

4. The combination with a safe having amanganese steel wall and a door, of a liner substantially co-extensive with the wall and comprising an inner ply of tungsten steel, an intermediate copper base heat conducting ply, and a concrete ller between the intermediate ply and the wall.

5. 'I'he combination with a safe having a wall provided with a door opening and a door, of a liner comprising peripheral sections and end sections applicable about the interior of the wall and provided with means for connecting the safe sections together to comprise a complete lining substantially ocr-extensive with said wall, each such section being receivable throughthe door opening. I

6. The combination with a safe having a wall provided with a door opening and a door, of a liner comprising peripheral sections and end sections applicable about the interior of the wall and provided with means for connecting the safe sections together to comprise a complete lining substantially co-extensive with said wall, each such section being receivable through the door opening and including a plurality of plies, one of which is more highly heat resistant than the wall, and the other of which is more highly heat conductive than the wall.

7. The combination with a safe, of a container 15 liner, said portion being adapted to release the Within the safe providing a supply of oxygen, and thermally responsive means operable in the presence of excessive heat torelease the oxygen from the container.

8. The combination with a safe, of a vessel Within the safe containing oxygen under pressure and including thermally responsive means for releasing said oxygen When the temperature within the safe becomes excessive.

9. The combination with a safe, of a vessel having a low temperature fusible portion, said vessel containing oxygen and being disposed within the safe.

10. The combination with a safe having aI Wall, of a liner substantially co-extensive With said Wall and comprising metal more resistant to torch burning than said Wall, and an oxygen containing Vessel within said liner having thermally responsive means for releasing its contents at temperatures less than those which Will be produced Within the liner by any attempt to penetrate the liner thermally.

11. 'Ihe combination with a safe having a Wall and a liner for said Wall, of a receptacle having at least a fusible portion disposed within said contents of the receptacle at temperatures below those which will be occasioned within the liner in the thermal penetration of the safe.

12. The combination with a safe, of thermally responsive means for supplying oxygen tothe interior thereof.

13. The combination with a safe, of means therewithin for destroying the contents of the safe upon thermal attack, said means comprising a gaseous medium adapted in the presence of heat to destroy the contents ofthe safe, a vessel containing said medium, and thermally responsive means for releasing said medium in the presence of excessive heat.

14. The combination with a safe, of means therewithin for destroying the contents of the safe upon thermal attack, said means comprising an internal liner having high thermal resistance, whereby it can be penetrated only by excessive heat, and thermal responsive means operative in the presence of excessive heat for delivering an oxygenating medium to the interior of the liner.

ANDREW M. DE VOURSNEY. 

